Second lawsuit accuses Dr. James Kohut of malpractice at Dominican Hospital

Dr. James Kohut rests his head as attorney Jay Rorty speaks for him in court in November. (Dan Coyro -- Santa Cruz Sentinel file)

SANTA CRUZ >> It has been almost a year since Adam Tovar had a severe headache — and an apparent lack of immediate medical care — that ended up killing him at Dominican Hospital, according to a suit filed in Santa Cruz County Superior Court.

It was the second malpractice case filed this year accusing suspected child molester Dr. James Kohut and his previous employers of botched surgeries at Dominican Hospital. The first case involved Wendell Driver, a patient who had the wrong size screws placed in his neck in October 2016. That patient cannot find a doctor in the San Francisco Bay Area to correct the error, Stockton attorney Stewart Tabak said.

The latest suit accuses Kohut of failing to operate on Tovar’s brain in time to save his life and questions whether Kohut’s alleged crimes affected the brain surgeon’s performance at work. The suit also challenges the hospital for employing a doctor with disciplinary actions for downloading porn at work and operating on the wrong side of a patient’s brain more than a decade ago at another hospital.

Dominican Hospital spokeswoman Felicity Simmons said she was unable to comment on a pending lawsuit.

Kohut assessed Tovar more than 12 hours after a Dominican Hospital radiologist on Feb. 14, 2017, notified the surgeon about enlarged cavities inside the patient’s brain. Tovar’s condition was “critical,” according to the suit.

The patient had a failing shunt, Phoenix, Arizona, malpractice attorney Burt Rosenblatt wrote. A shunt is a tube that drains excess fluid from the brain to the chest or abdomen to keep the ventricles, the cavities inside the brain, a normal size, according to Stanford Health Care.

The suit claims Tovar died as a result of negligence and carelessness from a doctor the Tovar family did not choose.

“And defendants knew or should have known that allowing his condition to go without timely treatment would almost certainly result in his demise,” Rosenblatt wrote.

Rosenblatt told the Sentinel he made attempts to contact the defendants before filing the suit but received no response.

Simmons, the Dominican Hospital spokeswoman, declined to comment on the allegation.

CRIMINAL CASE

Kohut, 57, was arrested in May 2017 in connection with raping children at a Santa Cruz resort, a Scotts Valley motel and other locations. Kohut initially faced 11 charges, which increased to 48 felonies after police gained video evidence filmed in Watsonville some time between Jan. 1 and May 9, 2017, according to court documents. Kohut’s bail terms prohibit him from practicing medicine if he is released from jail.

Advertisement

Kohut is accused of raping children with two conspirators. Emily Stephens, 30, of Tucson, Arizona, is charged with 45 felonies. Rashel Brandon, 43, faces 44 felonies. Bail was set at $15 million for each defendant in the consolidated cases. All defendants were at Santa Cruz County Jail on Tuesday. A preliminary hearing is set for 9 a.m. March 12 in Superior Court.

CREDENTIALS QUESTIONED

Punitive damages will be sought if evidence supports claims that Tovar suffered as a result of Kohut’s “involvement in illegal, vulgar, lewd or inappropriate behavior of molesting children or having sexual affairs with others on the date in issue while he was charged with attending to decedent Adam Tovar in a timely manner,” Rosenblatt wrote.

The suit also accuses Dignity Health and Dominican Hospital of negligence for employing Kohut, who had been placed on probation by the California Medical Board for operating on the wrong side of a patient’s head in 2002 and downloading pornography while working at the University of California Medical Center.

“His prior credentials and behavior at other hospitals should have alerted defendant Dignity Health and/or Dignity Health Dominican Hospital that he was a person unfit to be a physician at the facility,” Rosenblatt wrote.